Hamilton College
Clinton, New York | Admissions Phone: 315-859-4421
E-mail: admission@hamilton.edu | Website: www.hamilton.edu
ADMISSION
Admission Rate: 21%
Admission Rate - Men: 23%
Admission Rate - Women: 20%
EA Admission Rate: Not Offered
ED Admission Rate: 42%
Admission Rate (5-Year Trend): -6%
ED Admission Rate (5-Year Trend): +3%
% of Admits Attending (Yield): 36%
Transfer Admission Rate: 21%
# Offered Wait List: 1,406
# Accepted Wait List: 759
# Admitted Wait List: 28
SAT Reading/Writing (Middle 50%): 670-740
SAT Math (Middle 50%): 680-770
ACT Composite (Middle 50%): 31-34
Testing Policy: Test Flexible
SAT Superscore: Yes
ACT Superscore: Yes
% Graduated in Top 10% of HS Class: 81%
% Graduated in Top 25% of HS Class: 98%
% Graduated in Top 50% of HS Class: 100%
ENROLLMENT
Total Undergraduate Enrollment: 1,915
% Part-Time: 0%
% Male: 47%
% Female: 53%
% Out-of-State: 71%
% Fraternity: 17%
% Sorority: 8%
% On-Campus (Freshman): 100%
% On-Campus (All Undergraduate): 100%
% African-American: 4%
% Asian: 7%
% Hispanic: 10%
% White: 62%
% Other: 4%
% Race or Ethnicity Unknown: 5%
% International: 7%
% Low-Income: 18%
ACADEMICS
Student-to-Faculty Ratio: 9:1
% of Classes Under 20: 76%
% of Classes Under 40: 98%
% Full-Time Faculty: 83%
% Full-Time Faculty w/ Terminal Degree: 97%
Top Programs
Biology
Economics
English
Environmental Studies
Government
Mathematics and Statistics
Public Policy
World Politics
Retention Rate: 94%
4-Year Graduation Rate: 88%
6-Year Graduation Rate: 93%
Curricular Flexibility: Very Flexible
Academic Rating: 
FINANCIAL
Institutional Type: Private
In-State Tuition: $54,080
Out-of-State Tuition: $54,080
Room & Board: $13,870
Required Fees: $540
Books & Supplies: $1,000
Avg. Need-Based Aid: $45,196
Avg. % of Need Met: 100%
Avg. Merit-Based Aid: $0
% Receiving Merit-Based Aid: 0%
Avg. Cumulative Debt: $20,582
% of Students Borrowing: 44%
CAREER
Who Recruits
1. Merrill Lynch
2. NERA Economic Consulting
3. Isaacson Miller, Inc.
4. Teach for America
5. Kantar Consulting
Notable Internships
1. Credit Suisse
2. CNBC
3. UBS
Top Industries
1. Business
2. Education
3. Operations
4. Media
5. Finance
Top Employers
1. Morgan Stanley
2. Goldman Sachs
3. Google
4. Wayfair
5. Citi
Where Alumni Work
1. New York City
2. Boston
3. Washington, DC
4. San Francisco
5. United Kingdom
Median Earnings
College Scorecard (Early Career): $60,200
EOP (Early Career): $60,300
PayScale (Mid-Career): $108,100
RANKINGS
Forbes: 59
Money: 177
U.S. News: 14 (T), Liberal Arts Colleges
Wall Street Journal/THE: 59 (T)
Washington Monthly: 19, Liberal Arts Colleges
Inside the Classroom
Recent years have been kind to Alexander Hamilton. His legacy has sparked a mega-hit Broadway musical, a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, and the liberal arts college in Clinton, New York, that bears his name— Hamilton College—has achieved new heights of prestige, claiming a place among the best liberal arts schools in the United States.
Close to 1,900 undergraduate students can choose from forty-three areas of concentration, but education at Hamilton is about so much more than merely choosing a major. The unique open curriculum is immensely flexible and caters to student passions and curiosity over a rigid list of required courses. While there are no distributional requirements, certain skill areas must be addressed as you work your way through the thirty-two courses needed for graduation. That includes three writing-intensive courses, one quantitative/symbolic reasoning course, one physical education course, and an area of concentration that includes a senior project.
The student-to-faculty ratio is 9:1, and without any pesky graduate students to get in the way, face time with professors is a regular occurrence. In fact, 37 percent of all classes have nine or fewer students; 76 percent have nineteen or fewer. Each summer more than 140 students engage in high-level undergraduate research with a faculty member. Two-thirds of Hamilton students study off campus for a semester, although those locations are not always foreign countries. Many participate in domestic study programs in NYC, DC, or Boston while others take advantage of international opportunities like the school’s own renowned Chinese language program in Beijing or one of one hundred other approved programs around the globe.
Economics, government, and biology are among the strongest and most popular majors; Other standout programs include public policy, mathematics, and environmental studies. Hamilton students fare extremely well in competition for prestigious national fellowships, capturing a shocking number when considering the small size of each graduating class. The Class of 2019 won seven Fulbright Scholarships, a Critical Language Scholarship, a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, and a Watson Fellowship; six juniors also won Gilman Scholarships last year.
Outside the Classroom
Just about everyone lives in university housing—roughly 98 percent to be precise—leading to a cohesive atmosphere on the college’s 1,350-acre campus. Greek life is strange in that it is nonresidential following a series of reforms over the past decade. While roughly one-quarter of Hamilton students belong to a fraternity or sorority, those organizations do not play nearly as prominent a role on campus as they once did. The school’s twenty-nine teams (15 women’s, 14 men’s) compete as the Colonials in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) with other elite liberal arts schools Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, Middlebury, Tufts, Wesleyan, and Williams. There are 550 student-athletes donning the buff-and-blue colors, accounting for 30 percent of the total student body. Add that total to the seventeen club and twelve intramural teams and it can feel like just about everyone is, technically, an athlete. Yet, with almost 200 active student organizations, there are plenty of ways to get involved outside of competitive team sports. The Hamilton Association for Volunteering, Outreach, and Charity (HAVOC) attracts hundreds of civic-minded students each year. The Hamilton Outing Club is the largest club on campus and organizes weekend camping/hiking/skiing trips to the Adirondacks as well as more exotic locations around the world. Amazing speakers come to town as part of the Sacerdote Great Names Series. In recent years Hamilton has hosted David Cameron, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Desmond Tutu, Jon Stewart, Colin Powell, and Jimmy Carter.
Career Services
The Maurice Horowitch Career Center is staffed by twelve professionals with expertise in career development, employer development, and health professions advising. That works out to a 155:1 student-to-advisor ratio, which is significantly stronger than most schools featured in this guide. Each student is assigned a career advisor who works with that student throughout the four-year journey. On the job-finding front, the center assists “students in developing skills in self-assessment, career exploration, resume preparation, interviewing, and uncovering job leads that will empower them to proactively manage their own careers.” Yet, that is all steeped in the belief that career planning is a developmental process that unfolds over a lifetime.
The college does not host any large-scale career expos, but numerous employers do visit campus each year to host informational sessions or to recruit/interview candidates. Hamilton’s Career Center does a superb job assisting students with finding opportunities for experiential learning. Nine in ten members of the class of 2019 had at least one internship over the course of the four years, and an incredible 70 percent had two. Alumni are highly supportive of current students and are willing to present on campus or offer job-shadowing experiences; 75 percent of alumni in a recent survey stated they would be happy to supply current students with career advice. Hamilton’s 22,500 alumni rank in the top 1 percent when measured by the percentage that donate to their alma mater. Students can join Handshake to find internship and career possibilities and My Hamilton to network with alumni. Despite not hosting a notable career fair, the individualized attention and care that Hamilton shows its undergrads results in tremendously overall positive postgraduate and career outcomes.
Professional Outcomes
Examining the 477 graduates in Hamilton’s class of 2018, an enviable 95 percent wasted no time landing jobs, graduate school acceptances, or fellowships. The most commonly entered industries were business (18 percent), education (13 percent), finance (12 percent), and science and technology (9 percent), health care (9 percent), and marketing/sales (7 percent). Among the employers welcoming multiple graduates aboard were Wayfair, Goldman Sachs, Teach for America, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Kantar Consulting, and Deutsch Bank. New York City, Boston, and DC were the most popular destinations. Median compensation by midcareer (age thirty-four) is roughly $60,000, comparable to other elite Northeastern liberal arts colleges such as Middlebury, Tufts, and Colby.
Only 11 percent of 2018 graduates went directly into an advanced degree program. Of that group, 35 percent were studying a STEM field, 23 percent health care, and 6 percent went to law school. Law school acceptances over the past three years have included Georgetown, the University of Virginia, NYU, Penn, Yeshiva University, Washington University, Boston College, and Boston University. Medical school/veterinary school acceptances in that same period have included Columbia University, Penn, Temple, Tufts, SUNY, the University of Rochester, and Boston University. Other Hamilton graduates have been accepted into master’s programs at Stanford, Cornell, USC, the University of Chicago, Vanderbilt, and others. Clearly, a degree from Hamilton opens doors to some of the world’s top graduate/professional programs.
Admission
Hamilton saw 6,240 applicants for a coveted spot in the Class of 2022, but only 21 percent of that group made the cut, and only 36 percent of those admitted ultimately enrolled in the college. Most applicants provide SAT or ACT scores, but this institution is test-flexible and allows three AP/IB/SAT subject tests to be submitted in lieu of the SAT/ACT. The mid-50 percent range on the SAT was 1350-1510 and 31-34 on the ACT. The vast majority of students finished near the top of their high school class; 81 percent were in the top decile and 98 percent placed in the top quartile. Hamilton’s admissions statistics have remained highly consistent over the past decade, so the level of selectivity should not come as a surprise to anyone.
The admissions committee’s top priorities are an applicant’s GPA, class rank, and the rigor of their coursework. Standardized test scores, essays, recommendations, character/personal qualities, and an interview comprise the second tier of key factors. Because Hamilton is competing for applicants with a host of other elite liberal arts schools, it favors those willing to commit via binding early decision; the acceptance rate for early applicants is more than double that (42 percent) of those in the regular pool (19 percent). Further, early acceptances make up 51 percent of the freshman class, leaving only a limited number of seats in the spring. To be a competitive applicant you should be in the top 10 percent of your graduating class and have standardized test scores in the 95th percentile or higher. If you’re on the cusp and Hamilton is your top choice, definitely apply ED.
Worth Your Money?
If you have a genuine need for financial aid to make your education possible, Hamilton will usually answer the bell. In the 2018-19 academic year the college awarded over half of its undergraduates an average grant of $45,000, taking some of the sting out of the $70,000 sticker price for full cost of attendance. In 2008 Hamilton ceased offering merit aid to admitted applicants, a rare and admirable practice in the world of higher education. With 100 percent of its focus on making college affordable to lower- and middle-class students, higher-earning families can expect to pay full freight. Still, this school, with its minuscule class sizes, truly exceptional academics, and powerful network is, in the end, worth the money for most teens.